is motion 26 a completed painting?? /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 26 at the end of the day yesterday.

7:43 AM: i'll know for certain when i get to my studio, but when i look at this photo, it appears to be a resolved painting. it incorporates many of the discoveries of the earlier motion series paintings, and adds some new ones that build upon them.

this may open the door to a whole new group of motion works, which will also be infused, no doubt, by the museums we visit in paris late next week. i'll document that experience as it unfolds here on my daily blog posts.

more as soon as i get to the studio.

continuing work on motion 26 /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 26 at 3:30 PM, following the introduction of oil paints

motion 21, completed may 4,2018

3:30 PM: following a late luch of pancakes with blueberries & walnuts, i squeezed some oil colors onto my palette & began, gingerlyto work into the colored pencil & crayon under-drawing.

DETAIL of motion 26 at 3:30 pm

at the moment, when comparing it to, say motion 21, which you see on the right, it has a more ethereal, impressionistic air about it, suggesting more than it describes.

 

 

 

 

i do like the way this linen takes the paint, possibly even more so than the far more expensive artfix portrait linen. plus, it's more resilient and less prone to creasing than the super fine portrait linen.it responds differently to scraping because it has more tooth than the paper-like portrait linen. i'm cool with that.

motion 26 at 1:50 pm

1:50 PM: i am moving slowly on this one, approaching the point where i might introduce oil paint, possibly later this afternoon. i'd like to maintain the delicate balance as i introduce elements that will make it pop more from a distance. the eternal internal debate about when to leave it alone continues unabated!

RIGHT: detail of motion 26 at 1:50 PM. this detail i selected could actually work as a finished composition, wouldn't you say?

 

 

11:33 AM:

first thing this morning we learned of the death of anthony bourdain at 61. we are still in shock, as we know are those who knew him personally, including barak, and his family. like many of you, he was my hero.

starting a bit late today; i had to run up & reserve a campsite for friends arriving tonight before they were all gone; i got the last one!

in reviewing the work i did yesterday, i got a sense of where it might want to go. so lets get to work & i'll post as the day progresses.

 

starting work on motion 26 /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day, so i can have time to rest before todays round of calls to prospective colorado district 3 primary campaign voters. we support diane mitch bush, about whom you can learn more on her site: dianeforcolorado.com.

she's dynamite.

i took this under-drawing further in the past hour. in the next day or two, i'll decide whether or not to introduce areas of oil paint.

the area of blue water you see in the image BELOW is the very last thing i did before stopping for the day. i think it's a good example of the power of calligraphic marks, and how they can allow one to say more with less.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:22 PM: i'm back! know how i can tell? i sang & i danced here in my studio, while listening to my shuffle songs. that's how. you don't sing & dance if you feel crappy & have the damn flu.

so i started a new drawing for motion 26. now don't get confused. there was a different motion 26, 27 & 28 a few weeks ago, which were 3 20x20" paintings that were experiments intended for a denver gallery. it's a long story, but they are no longer motion paintings. 

so i let my pencils & crayons dance their dance across the new linen canvas i just received yesterday. it's a slightly different dance than what happens on the super fine portrait linen, which takes the pencil & crayon almost like drawing on a piece of bristol paper. slides right across. no little bumps to contend with. just slides right along like spaghetti on a string. this one is more textured. different but not worse or better. i got a nice big 85" roll, so there are many paintings that will come out of it. this is number 1. 

so back to work, as i listen to neil young live at massey hall, 1971. if you've never heard it, you can find all the songs with excellent video on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zFp-NYfysI&index=8&list=PL6EA057F2A714493A

10:48 AM: after making mikela a delicious cup of fresh roasted & ground ethiopian coffee, having an important conversation with the driver of the trash truck and having a morning snack, i'm ready to embark on the next painting in my motion series. pics & commentary a bit later in the day.

as i was preparing to start the new painting, i ran across this image of a 2014 (?) collage. from the looks of it, it's a fairly good sized one, but i can only guess the width...maybe 60"?? rather handsome, don't you think?

continuing the motion series /  by Philip Tarlow

1:56 PM: i'm not fully recovered form the flu, so i'm taking a little break back at the house. i received a new roll of linen from savoir faire today, and as i unpacked it, i realized i don't feel complete with my motion series.

the past few weeks have been devoted to futile attempts to at creating "loose abstracted landscapes" for the denver gallery i was interested in. i made two unsuccessful attempts, but when i brought the new work to the gallery, they didn't fit their pictures. as i've said in previous blogs, i've never in my career done something like this, and now i know why! i'm trying not to hold it as a waste of my time, but it sure feels that way!

it feels like a huge relief to get back to my motion series. so i'm stretching two new canvases, both 36x38"  & anticipating starting work on the first one tomorrow. 

the painting on the upper right, motion 25, was the last one i did, and differs form the rest in that it has no under-drawing. i think the new ones will. i feel that it's an important ingredient. on the right is one with an under-drawing: motion 7: richer, more layered, complex.

plus, and this one is important for me, there's an element of the fortuitous accident. as i paint & scrape over the under-drawing, magic happens. i live for that magic, so why leave it out? in the interest of a "cleaner" look? the painting that have an under-drawing invite more viewer participation, each viewer creating his or her own story.

BELOW: a detail from motion 7.

flu, day 6, progress! a grey palette /  by Philip Tarlow

2:22 PM: so here's where it's at right now. i did start departing from the grays, and this is becoming a denser painting than motion 26 & 27, in part as a result of feedback from my son dimitri. he has a very good eye, which i trust. 

as far as the spatial orientation of the viewer, which the gallery was interested in, it's more distinct than in the other two.

my extraction site my have a bit of an infection, and i'm in too much pain to go on much longer. i took a picture of it & texted it to my dentist, so we'll see what he says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:33 PM: today is the first day i feel like i can paint. well, maybe a little. i'm starting out with a palette of 7 greys, white & black. let's see where it takes me. i'm continuing work on motion 28, 20x20"

flu, day 5/ rejuvinated cacti /  by Philip Tarlow

7:20 AM: today marks the 5th day of this really bad flu. and i had the flu shot!  i can't even think about going to the studio to paint, so i'm just going to rest today.

ABOVE: left & center: the precip fell as snow above 12,500 ft. right: we haven't seen this much water in our driveway in a very long time.

yesterday the predictions for thunderstorms were realized. we ended up receiving .70" of precip, starting at 11 am & continuing, with a few interruptoins, until 8pm. while we are still in a drought, it was a huge relief to receive that much precip. as i mentioned on FB, as i was walking over to my studio yesterday to get some raw ginger & tumeric i had there, i spotted the little desert cacti along the way. they had been looking very unhappy; dry & shriveled. this is the month when they blossom, and it looking grim. but after the rain, the perked right up, and for the first time i saw their little pink blossoms emerging. i've painted them in the past, & i'll try to take a shot & post it later today if i'm up to it.

flu day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

4:10 PM: it ain't fun, friends. a nasty nasty flu. i need a permanant cup hanging beneath my nose.

i created a new page with mostly plein air landscapes, all of which have some form of horizon, which was the request of the denver gallery. a few are more realist than some of the others, and i plan on reviewing them all with the gallery to choose the ones they find the most compelling, in terms of what they've been looking for in abstracted landscapes. here's the link, and below are a few selections form the 24 paintings on the page.

flu /  by Philip Tarlow

7:58 PM: woke up with the flu, with all its nasty symptoms. so i didn't go to the studio & just mainly rested, except for an hour of political calls i just made asking for support for our favorite democratic candidte, who is running to unseat tipton.

in reviewing the 20x20" landscape studies i made over the past week, i was less than excited. maybe it just doesn't work trying to meet someone elses expectations. i kind of know now, after 2 tries, what the denver gallery i'm so interested in is looking for, but it runs counter to my preferred way of working without a specific end in mind. when i'm feeling better, i'll make one more attempt at a plein air oil, and if that doesn't work, it may not have been meant to be.

i did find a plein air gouache done last year that i think comes close to their vision, and this is it.

                  3/25/17 plein air gouache

i'll get them on the phone & see what they think. if it's a good fit, i can make paintings that are compositionally in alignment with this gouache, with it's defined spaces, clear foreground & background. it's one of my better plein air gouaches, i'd say.

motion 28, 20x20" /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of motion 28

3:40 PM: motion 28 at the end of my painting day. 

at work on motion 28, 20x20"

2:45 PM: today i started another 20x20" oil painting which, along with motion 26 & 27 is an experiment for a larger version destined for a denver gallery. the challenge is to have it be loose & painterly but not so abstracted that the viewer has no sense of where they are located in space.

in other words, there needs to be a discernible foreground, middle ground & background , but without falling into the realm of a traditional landscape. more white space, less descriptiveness.

...and now that you mention it,,,, /  by Philip Tarlow

2:19 PM: today i entered my studio with verve and impeccable non-attachment. like a butterfly on holiday. i made another studio creek-scape on 20x20" portrait linen. shades of milton avery announced themselves. but with a 2018 awareness of the fast approaching end of all things familiar, whatsoever.

flim flam music entertained the space and memories of a naked boy immersing himself in 40 degree stream water. tremulous was the hand, but sure and steady, incomprehensibly certain through and above time. 

on saturday i got a box of pullet eggs from judy at the kiosk. they are, she said, smaller but with larger yolks. good, she added, for baking.